The present invention relates to a dispenser valve for dispensing liquids, flowable granular solids or the like from a container. In particular, the dispenser valve is of a push pull type especially for use in a neck of a bottle having a relatively large internal diameter to allow easy filling of the bottle.
Numerous types of materials are sold in liquid or powder dispensing bottles or containers, especially many cosmetic, food and cleaning compositions. These products vary greatly and include various types of liquids and other flowable materials such as hand creams, powders, catsup, chocolate syrup and liquid dish washing soap. Push pull type dispensing valves on these containers have made these products very easy to use and the containers of this type have been well accepted by the buying public. Nevertheless, the plastics industry that manufactures the containers and the valves must continuously try to reduce the cost associated with such containers.
In particular, the molding cost associated with the various components of the conventional valves and bottles are quite expensive. In order to manufacture a container that has a rather wide mouth to allow quick and therefore comparatively less expensive filling, the dispensing valve has usually been required to be of a two part construction. This is especially true as it is normally desirable that the dispensing aperture have a significantly less cross sectional area than the mouth of the container. This is because it is usually desirable for flow out of the bottle to be slower than the filling rate of the bottle. Furthermore, it is desirable to have the ability to vary the cross sectional area of the outlet as different products have different preferred flow rates.
As noted above many prior art dispensing valves that were utilized with relatively wide mouth containers normally required a two part construction. Such a construction substantially increased the cost of the valve as a complete mold had to be made for each of the parts at a substantial cost. Consequently it is desirable to provide a single piece dispensing valve that can be molded in a single operation for use in conjunction with a wide mouth container, but have a dispensing channel that is substantially smaller than the mouth.
Furthermore, it is desirable that the dispensing valve be constructed of as little plastic as possible, as the materials cost for the valves increases proportionally with the amount of plastic used.
Also it is desirable that a construction be provided that allows simple variation of the outlet cross section of the valve in accordance with valves made for different products.
It is also noted that it is desirable to maintain the amount of plastic in the valve at a minimum in order to quickly complete the cooling or curing cycle of the plastic so that the valve can then be released from the mold and the mold reused on a quicker basis for producing additional valves.
Finally, it is desirable that valves be of a single piece construction and easily inserted into the mouth of a container to allow for mechanical placement of the valve and for substantial reduction in the labor and machinery required to assemble multi-piece valves.